Kennedy Caitlin, a Dolly Parton tribute act, was lucky enough to meet the music superstar and paid tribute to the singer.

Visibly emotional Kennedy, who lives in Harwood, said that generations contacted with Dolly because “she’s always been authentically her.”

Kennedy remembers Dolly Parton (Image: Kennedy Caitlin)

Kennedy who has performed at Bolton Food and Drink Festival, met Dolly in 2016 during the singer’s Pure and Simple tour across North America and Canada, describing her as “funny and quick-witted.”

She said her inspiration came from Dolly’s famous quote: “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”

She became emotional while explaining her own interpretation of the quote:

Kennedy said:“She made my life worth living and she gave me the living to make a life.”

Recalling when she met Dolly, Kennedy, 30, said: “I told her that I was a tribute to herself, and she said, ‘I wish I was as beautiful as you.”

Fans often tell her that her performances feel uncannily close to the real thing.

Kennedy remembers Dolly Parton (Image: Kennedy Caitlin)

Kennedy said: “A lot of people say to me after that I closed my eyes and felt like I was back there with Dolly”

In her own tribute shows, Kennedy often recreates Dolly’s iconic 2014 Glastonbury performance.

She calls it one of the singer’s “biggest moments” in the UK.

Dolly famously drew the largest crowd that Glastonbury had ever seen.

Her work as a tribute artist has taken her across the UK, as well as to Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, and she has even received offers to perform in Dubai.

Kennedy’s favourite song to perform is the legendary “I Will Always Love You.”

She said that people often “don’t realise that [Dolly] wrote it.” When she sings the ballad, she said you can hear a “pin drop”.

The Bolton News previously featured Kennedy Caitlin in 2015 following her appearance as Dolly Parton on the Stars in Their Eyes revival series.

Kennedy performs as Dolly Parton on Manchester River Cruises every month and will be singing at Grosvenor Casino Bolton on the 2 October as part of “A Night in Vegas.”

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Tom Byabagamba, a former commander of President Paul Kagame’s elite presidential guard who later was convicted of inciting insurrection, has died in prison after spending a dozen years behind bars, his brother said. He was 59.

Byabagamba, who held the rank of colonel before he was stripped of it, was the brother of former presidential adviser and now-exiled dissident David Himbara, who announced Byabagamba’s death Tuesday in a statement on X.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of our beloved brother, Colonel Tom Byabagamba, who passed away while in prison in Rwanda,” Himbara said. He did not give a cause of death.

There was no immediate comment from authorities in Rwanda, where the subject of Byabagamba is taboo. He was commander of the presidential guard until he apparently had a falling out with the president and was removed from his post in 2010, with no reason given.

Rwandan authorities detained Byabagamba in August 2014 along with another officer, Brig. Frank Rusagara. In 2016, the Military High Court sentenced them to several years in prison over charges including inciting insurrection and tarnishing the government’s image. Rusagara died in prison last year.

Many critics saw the trial as flawed, and Human Rights Watch said the case followed a pattern of silencing government critics at home and abroad.

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In 2019, the Court of Appeal reduced Byabagamba’s initial 21-year sentence to 15 years.

Rwanda’s government denies targeting its opponents, even as Kagame’s critics say his authoritarian stance leaves no room for internal dissent. Many senior army officers have fallen out with Kagame, with some fleeing into exile because they believed their lives had been threatened.

Kagame is credited for transforming Rwanda from a country in shambles after the 1994 genocide. But he also faces persistent criticism for what human rights groups say are widespread abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition. He denies the accusations.

Stan Wawrinka will play at this year’s US Open after all after a withdrawal opened up a wild card spot for the 2016 champion.

The USTA initially confirmed at the start of the week that Wawrinka, the three-time Grand Slam winner who is retiring at the end of the season, was not on their list of eight wild-card spots.

The 41-year-old had even penned an emotional message on social media, marking the end of his Grand Slam and US Open career, but the withdrawal due to injury of Patrick Kypson on Wednesday, previously awarded a wild card, has handed Wawrinka and the USTA a reprieve.

Wawrinka said: “I’m incredibly excited to accept the wild card for the 2026 US Open and look forward to competing in front of the fans in New York once again.”

It means Wawrinka will make one last major appearance in the main draw at Flushing Meadows in New York. The tournament starts on Sunday, with the draw taking place on Thursday at 5pm (BST).

The initial decision not to award Wawrinka a wild card was much-criticised across tennis circles, particularly given the Swiss player had featured at every other major this year – and impressed in a run to the third round at the Australian Open.

Wawrinka’s world ranking has dropped to 127, putting him just outside the window for direct main draw entry. He could have played in qualifying, as Grigor Dimitrov has opted to do, but he has now been vindicated by his choice.

Wawrinka won the last of his three Grand Slams in New York, after triumphing at the Australian Open in 2014 and the French Open in 2015.

The Swiss player has already confirmed that he plans to bow out at his home tournament, the Swiss Indoors event in Basel, in October.

Bill Gates is hitting the panic button on the ‘insane’ AI wave that could dream up new bio-weapons, bombs, create pandemics and unleash them on the human race.

In a 6,000-word essay titled ‘The Turbulent AI Era Is Here – The Choices We Make Are Critical’, the former Microsoft boss warned AI is developing far faster than humans can control.

He insists people will need to protect global economies by ring-fencing ‘human reserved’ jobs like doctors and carers before robots take over everything.

‘AI will either be the greatest equaliser ever invented, or the worst source of injustice,’ Mr Gates wrote.

‘Even under the best circumstances, the transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history.’

He claims AI has all the tools it needs to create bombs, bioweapons and computer viruses and could become capable of using that information without human permission.

‘Although AI will lead to lifesaving advances in drugs and vaccines, it will also make it easier to design a deadly new disease,’ he said. 

‘Again, the positive capabilities are hard to separate from the dangerous ones. This is a global problem.

‘The risks I’ve just mentioned are all about how AI will empower bad actors who have relatively little power now. The same tools will also concentrate power in places where it already exists.’ 

‘Autonomous weapons, for example, will make governments even more capable of using deadly force without a human being part of the decision,’ Mr Gates added.

‘Monitoring and manipulating public opinion will be easier and cheaper, and more effective too.’

‘Because it can see, listen, speak, and reason and will eventually do physical work just as smoothly as any human, it will not just affect one sector,’ the tech leader said.

‘AI will take on work in law, customer service, medicine, software, and manufacturing. It will hit these industries rapidly, over the course of a decade rather than a few generations.’

He urged the adoption of ‘human reserved’ jobs protected from AI, fearing huge numbers of jobs vanishing forever.

He continued: ‘I like the phrase human reserved because it makes me think of nature reserves – places where we could put buildings and roads, but we choose not to because the loss would be too great.’

He referred to the doctors who cared for his father as he died of Alzheimer’s disease six years ago.

‘Something in the care they gave my dad was irreplaceably human, no robot could or should have done it,’ he said. 

‘Imagine a robot giving you the awful news that you have an incurable disease. There’s no technical reason why it couldn’t. Yet it shouldn’t.’

After publishing the blog, he told Semafor he had changed his mind on the benefits of AI to the human race.

He added: ‘I am in a state of shock that I’m sort of the first one saying, “This is crazy. This is insane,” he said. ‘I’m just deafened by the silence.’

Gates had been a proponent on the positives AI can bring to medicine and global food production.

Gates had become entangled in the Jeffrrey Epstein scandal after appearing in Epstein files after the paedophile billionaire presented himself as someone who could connect wealthy donors to global health causes. An affair was revealed and ultimately his association with Epstein led to his divorce from Melinda Gates.

Gates told 9News: ‘You know, in retrospect, that was a dead end and I was foolish to spend time with him. I am one of many people who regret ever knowing him.’

The Microsoft co-founder added: ‘I was only at dinners… I never went to the island, I never met any women, and so, you know, the more that comes out, the more clear it’ll be, that although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behavior.’

In late February, Gates admitted to having extramarital affairs with two Russian women but denied any involvement with the financier’s activities.

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The Lloyds banking app went down for some users in the UK this afternoon, with hundreds reporting issues on DownDetector – there were also issues reported with Halifax

Social media giant Meta will pay almost $17 billion to settle a lawsuit that claimed its products Instagram and Facebook harmed young users.

Wednesday’s settlement resolves a lawsuit brought against Meta by 29 states over claims Instagram and Facebook were deliberately designed to get children hooked.

Meta was also accused of misleading users about how safe minors were on its platforms, and of improperly collecting personal data of children under 13 while they used its platforms.

As part of the settlement, Meta will impose daily usage limits on users under the age of 18, and also make it harder for minors to access its platforms at night.

‘Today, we have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of a difference for children and their families,’ California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement celebrating the development.

He maintained that Meta will enact the ‘massive transformations’ on its platforms ‘within months.’

The trial was co-led by Bonta and AGs from Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky. 

Meta owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who co-led the 29-state effort to sue the social media company, said in a statement that changes would be seen on platforms like Facebook and Instagram ‘within months’

Proceedings for the landmark federal trial began in Oakland, California, last week. It had originally been scheduled to run through early October. 

‘I am proud to deliver this settlement that addresses the concerns at the core of our lawsuit and institutes real change, real transparency, and real enforceable protections for children on Facebook and Instagram – right now, no more waiting,’ Bonta’s office said in its statement.

The AG specifically said Meta had agreed to install a default time limit of two hours for users under the age of 18, as well as a nighttime block between the hours of midnight and 6am. Parents can lift both settings.

Other mandated defaults include restrictions on the notifications youngsters and teens receive during school and nighttime hours, and a ban on showing the numbers of ‘likes’ or reactions to posts published by minors.

A ban on cosmetic surgery image filters for young users was agreed upon as well, Bonta said.

Also included in the settlement but not required is an option for young users to elect for a ‘non-personalized feed,’ rather than one fueled by an algorithm.

Meta must also hire an independent auditor to ensure the company adheres to another provision- that the company no longer peddles ‘further false, misleading, or deceptive statements around its safety features,’ Bonta said.

The settlement is set to be paid to the states who participated in the 2023 lawsuit over the next ten years.

Proceedings began last week at  the Oakland federal courthouse in California and had been scheduled to run another few months

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Key testimony came from former Meta staffers like Arturo Béjar, a former Meta and Facebook safety engineer and Instagram consultant who said his job often included briefing Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, personally

The amount is one of the highest ever to be paid by a tech firm to US states. Meta said that ‘participating states’ will receive about $12.7 billion in a statement after the states filed their agreement Wednesday morning in the US Northern District of California.

The state of California is set to receive somewhere between $1.5 billion and $2.1 billion when the settlement is officially approved, according to Bonta’s office.

The state and other ‘participating states’ represented by the AGs will receive about $12.7 billion, or 70 percent, of the total settlement over the next decade according to Meta – with the other $5.3 billion hinging on whether its rivals, namely Google’s YouTube and TikTok, implement certain app changes as well.

This includes daily time limits for youth and a ‘night mode.’

Key testimony came from former Meta staffers like Arturo Béjar, a longtime Facebook safety engineer and Instagram consultant who said his job often included briefing Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

In his testimony, Béjar said he repeatedly raised issues about the type of content being pushed on to Zuckerberg and other Facebook and Instagram executive, but was rebuffed due to a culture obsessed with increasing user numbers at any cost.

Meta’s internal studies showed young users were exposed to harmful experiences at much higher rates than what the company acknowledged publicly, Béjar said.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri was also brought to the stand to speak about the effectiveness of some features that have been added to Instagram over the years to address those concerns.

Meta’s internal studies showed young users were exposed to harmful experiences at much higher rates than what the company acknowledged publicly, Béjar – seen here outside the Oakland court last Wednesday – said during his bombshell testimony 

Instagram head Adam Mosseri was grilled about the effectiveness of recent features added to Instagram meant to address those concerns

‘Most people don’t turn it on, but I don’t think we knew that yet because this was still under development,’ Mosseri admitted last week, referring to the platform’s ‘Take a Break’ feature.

‘Actually, we found out that a lot of people didn’t turn it on, and we’ve had to make a lot of changes over the last few years in order to have it be more adopted. This was back in 2021.’

Instagram Director of Product Design ​Francesco Fogu ​testified that Instagram knew that fewer people would use ‘Take a Break’ by not making it a default setting.

He also acknowledged the company allowed the removal of data from a presentation slide that showed that teenage Instagram users saw 1.5 times the rate of bullying-, suicide-, nudity- and violence-related content than their adult counterparts.

Brian Schwalb, the attorney general of the District of Columbia, said in a statement: ‘This is a monumental public health victory for young people in DC and across the country, and the safety features Meta is required to install will fundamentally and immediately change how young people use Instagram and Facebook.’

Schwalb added that while Meta was the first social media outfit to settle ‘but it will not be the last,’ with Snap, TikTok and YouTube also facing state enforcement actions and investigations from the consortium of states.

The Mata settlement is still subject to the approval of United States District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. She is expected to sign off on the agreement.

‘Meta wouldn’t settle unless it sees the writing on the wall and feels really exposed,’ Standford law progressor Nora Freeman Engstrom told the New York Times on Wednesday.

Xbox chief executive Asha Sharma says the gaming giant needs to be “thinking about” affordability for its next-generation console, amid a “crisis” in computing prices.

In an interview with the BBC, she said rising hardware costs partly driven by AI spending mean firms need to find ways to make gaming affordable.

She also revealed gamers will soon be able to get digital versions of many of the physical games they currently own, potentially meaning their old games can be played on future Xbox consoles without having to put a disc in a drive.

“I know players love physical media, and I know there’s a lot of benefits in digital media, and I want to make sure people have a choice,” Sharma said.

Currently, digital games can be downloaded online and played across Xbox consoles or PCs.

But some players prefer discs, with one of the main benefits being they can be bought and sold second-hand.

The topic has proven controversial, with Sony announcing new PlayStation games will no longer be released on discs from January 2028, and the hotly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI similarly launching without a physical disc.

“There are stacks of games on everybody’s shelves,” Sharma said.

“We’re announcing the ability for players for 1,000 titles with physical discs to be able to have a digital entitlement.”

If a disc is sold second-hand, the digital rights would transfer over to the new owner.

Players will be able to access the feature by inserting one of the supported games into their Xbox console. And Sharma hinted it meant gamers would be able to play their old titles on future hardware.

“We’ve long pioneered backwards compatibility and so you’ll continue to see that as we go forward in the generations,” she said.

But she would not reveal whether Xbox’s next-generation console – currently codenamed Project Helix – will have a disc drive at all.

“This next generation, we have to be thinking about efficiency and affordability alongside performance,” she added.

At least 33 British nationals are missing along with hundreds of foreign tourists after severe flash floods swept through villages along the Nepal-Tibet border.

Police confirmed that the bodies of at least 95 victims have been recovered following the disaster.

Dramatic footage captured a torrent of water breaking riverbanks, destroying bridges, houses and infrastructure across communities situated beside the Bhotekoshi River.

Here is a look at what caused the calamity, and where things stand now.

What happened?

Torrential floods swallowed roads, bridges, houses, ⁠and power projects in the border areas of Nepal, and triggered a mudslide that hit Gyirong Port, a major land crossing with neighbouring Tibet, cutting roads, communications, and power links to the area.

Dozens of people have also been injured.

What caused the calamity?

It is suspected that an earthquake ​struck ⁠the region and triggered an ice-rock avalanche on the Lhende Khola river in Nepal, causing the floods.

The river runs through both Nepal and Tibet.

Are any foreigners missing?

Officials in Nepal said 403 people, including 341 foreign nationals were reported missing.

Sunil Sharma, a tourism board spokesperson, said 133 were from India on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus. Also missing were 47 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from the Britain and 24 from Canada, he said.

Eight South Koreans working on a hydropower plant were also unaccounted for. The other missing included 17 Malaysian nationals, four South ‌Africans, and one person from the Netherlands.

At least 62 missing Nepali citizens were among hundreds of locals trekking in the Gosaikunda lake in Rasuwa, coinciding with the local festival of Janai Purnima on Friday, Sharma added. Nepal police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told The Associated Press that at least 28 police officials were missing.

Has the danger passed?

Authorities have warned that a second flood may occur since a blockage is still lodged upstream on the Lhende Khola river.

Flood alerts have also been issued in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which border Nepal, since several rivers flow down the Himalayas into their plains.

What is the situation now?

Police and military personnel were engaged in rescue efforts, although officials have said rescue helicopters would not be able to land in the affected areas until the waters recede.

People living in low-lying regions were being moved to safer places, and those along the river have been advised to remain alert.

How is the rescue effort progressing?

China has ‌deployed at least 574 rescuers ⁠to the land crossing but the flood sediment is posing a ⁠challenge.

Other countries have also offered to help. Giant neighbour India said it was coordinating closely ‌with Kathmandu on rescue ​and relief efforts. South Korea plans ‌to send a rapid-response team comprising government ​officials and fire and police personnel.

Additional reporting by AP.

BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai woman accused of killing her ex-husband, a U.S. diplomat, has been sentenced to one year in prison for violating Myanmar’s immigration laws, but she still might go to trial for murder, a lawyer familiar with her case said Wednesday.

The court in Yangon’s Kamayut township on Tuesday found Pavinee Supasirivisan guilty under a provision applying to any foreign national who commits a crime in the country, according to the lawyer.

The charge carries a sentence ranging from six months to five years, the lawyer said on condition of anonymity to avoid possible repercussions from Myanmar’s military-backed government, which exercises tight control over information.

Neither U.S. nor Myanmar officials have publicly named the dead man, but the New York Post and other Western media have identified him as 43-year-old Daniel Paul Riva, who served as a U.S. State Department assistant regional security officer. An online obituary for someone of that name has details including the same day of death as the victim and recollections of him having worked in several U.S. diplomatic missions.

The U.S. State Department had confirmed the death of a U.S. government employee, but refused to provide further information, including the victim’s name, citing privacy reasons.

Pavinee was arrested after the diplomat was found dead with stab wounds to the head and neck on May 11 at the Sakura Residence & Hotel, a facility popular with diplomats, business people, and other international visitors that is about 1½ kilometers (a mile) from the U.S. Embassy.

Police have opened a case at the township’s police station under the relevant murder provision, which carries a sentence ranging from 10 years in prison to the death penalty. But it’s not clear whether she has been formally charged with murder, or even whether a murder investigation is still ongoing, the lawyer said.

An official from Kamayut township’s immigration and population department confirmed her sentence for violating immigration law, but wouldn’t provide further details. He spoke on condition of anonymity, because he wasn’t authorized to speak with the media.

The military seized power from democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, giving rise to widespread protests that have expanded into a civil war in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.